I know, I know. You are so tired of me reminding you about Christmas when it's only August!! But come on! Throw on some Josh Groban crooning noel-esque tunes and get to work on some Christmas cards! You will be so glad you did when November rolls around! And just to prove that I'm a doer and not just a sayer, here's a Technique Tuesday on how I made these cute Christmas trees over the weekend that look great on cards or tags.
1. Using a sewing machine, stitch some triangles on green fabric. I traced some chipboard triangles just for a general template even though I sewed my actual triangles much smaller than my outlines.
If you hate sewing, you can achieve a similar look by drawing triangle outlines onto your fabric with a thick black pen instead.
2. Cut out your fabric triangle and ink the edges. I used a bright green ink and a teal ink.
3. Find some thin cardboard (I used a brownie mix box) or thick cardstock and trace around your fabric triangle. Cut out the cardboard triangle, then glue the fabric triangle on top of the cardboard triangle. I used a heavy duty industrial-strength glue stick, but you can use your adhesive of choice as long as it doesn't goop through the fabric.
4. Obtain some fuzzy or bumpy yarn (anything with blobs or clumps looks good). The kind I used is called "Fling" by Crystal Palace yarns.
5. Wrap the yarn around your tree, which simulates the look of streamers and ornaments. Adhere the yarn ends to the back of the tree with hot glue.
You could also use embroidery floss, thread, pipe cleaners, chain, etc.
6. Cut a strip of brown paper for the trunk and adhere it to the base of the tree. Pick a perfect tree topper and adhere it to the top of the tree. I used these little sparkly pom-poms, but you could also use several other things like gems, brads, sequins, stickers or star shapes.
Done! Wah-lah! You can stick these trees onto any package, box, card or tag for a cute and classy look. Here's how a tree looks on the lid of a gift card tin I'm working on:
There are several variations you could do with these trees. You could add additional ornaments, cover them with hearts or birds, make them short and squatty, cut them with pinking shears for zig zag edges; the possibilities are endless!
And don't kill the messenger, but I'm just sayin'....only 132 days until Christmas!
